IV] 



The Herbal in Switzerland 



9i 



linguistic subjects was of importance, and he also wrote on 

 medicine, mineralogy, zoology and botany. The botanical 

 works published during his life were not of great importance, 

 but, at the time of his death, he had already prepared a 

 large part of the material for a general history of plants, 



Text-fig. 48. "Lachryma lob" = Coix lachryma-Jobi L., 

 Job's Tears [Simler, Vita Conradi Gesneri, 1566]. 



which was intended as a companion work to his famous 

 ' Historia Animalium.' In order to illustrate it, he had 

 collected 1500 drawings of plants, the majority original, 

 though some were founded on previous wood-cuts, especially 



